Tag Archives: Bulletproof Coffee

Over the past weeks and months I’ve made a discovery for myself that goes against the grain of recent studies, scientific discoveries and other far more intelligent bloggers….. calories count. Now are all calories the same? Of course not. Nutrient density is a major factor, and 2000 calories in sticky buns will absolutely affect me much more adversely – with greater weight gain – than 2000 calories of nutrient dense meats, vegetables, nuts and seeds. But… if you eat handfuls of nuts all throughout the day while on a bulletproof diet, paleo diet or anything else, my experience is that you will gain weight…. or not lose it at least.

One tool that has helped me over the last while to better understand how much energy I have been consuming over a day, and the breakdown of fat, protein and carbohydrates in my day has been MyFitness Pal. I’m sure there are other food logging products out there, but I like this one for the integrations with other apps such as my Jawbone activity tracker, and others. Tracking my food for a period helped me to understand that a) I was eating far too much on my ‘cheat’ weekends, and b) my carbohydrate consumption went WAY up on weekends, which is why I always felt so foggy headed on Mondays. That and the fact that I would eat gluten on the weekends, which I now do not and can get in to another time.

I’m still figuring out what the right amount of energy and the right blend of fats to proteins to carbs is for me. There is a great book out there called The Perfect Diet that if you’re a geek on reading up on theories like I am I would recommend, though I must admit I’ve not yet tried the suggested breakdown of 65% fat, 15% protein and 20% carbs that the book suggests. I will, and will let you know!

So all this leads me back to my rekindled romance with BulletProof Coffee. As a woman, this much fat felt crazy and I wasn’t losing weight after the first initial couple of days last time. This was, as I’ve outlined here, primarily due to the ridiculous amounts of energy I was taking in in addition to the coffee and meals via snacks such as nuts.

Now, I use this coffee as a part of my intermittent fasting that I like to do on the weekends. Week days with workouts and life I just found a bit much. My routine is my coffee and my beloved Grazia magazine from the UK that I can still get on my iPad… who I was pleasantly surprised to see covered BulletProof Coffee last week! If you haven’t tried it yet, I’d suggest you give it a go. Your mental clarity will thank you.

Interested in more on my experiences as a woman with BulletProof? Check out a post from my initial experience here: BulletProof Coffee For Chicks

The first week of the fasting was great – my skin was clear, I felt fantastic, and the weight was dropping off. Also my cravings for anything ‘carbie’ or sweet were completely gone, and my energy levels were stable.

Come Friday though, the inevitable weekend of eating out made for some interesting discoveries. I seemed to be a lot more sensitive to foods that previously wouldn’t have bothered me, starting with the Fish Taco from Nicks on Friday afternoon, then the hash browns with my breakfast on the Saturday, and the sugar in the cocktail and sorbet Saturday night. By Monday, any (water) weight lost was back, along with the puffy face in the morning.

Week 2 was a little more bumpy, but with some key decisions being made. By Wed my weight was back down to that of the previous Friday, and the Ketostix were showing I was indeed in a slightly heightened state of ketosis. That was good. I also had dinner and drinks out every night that week booked in from Wednesday to Saturday – that was bad. I’m discovering quickly that my beloved glass of red wine is a key contributor to the puffy-face, so am trying out swapping to dry white. Having a whisky or a vodka with dinner instead still just seems a little too hardcore…. but if you’re interested, here’s an Infographic from Dave Asprey on what alcohols are best if you’re following the BulletProof diet:

So the good? When being mindful about what I’m eating at all times, I feel bloody good on this eating protocol. And even with eating out (with wine) for almost half of the nights of the two week test, I managed to keep a couple pounds off. The bad? Any digressions seem to take their toll a whole lot more. There’s a conversation in here about keeping toxin levels high to not be affected by food that is terrible for us vs living a better life with different choices, but I’ll save that for another day. The ugly? MCT Oil truly does do evil things if you take too much of it too soon.

As I mentioned before though, I made some decisions to start testing things, like liver & kidney function, ketosis in the morning and body fat. Having goals to get healthier, live better, goals to decrease body fat rather than weight, these goals are much better than ones that hold you hostage daily to a set of scales. To kick off my testing I visited the Body Composition Centre in Redwood City to get my body fat and bone density testing; I’ll post later this week on my results, and a very surprising finding…

Today I am introducing in to my blog a new love of mine that will feature significantly in my posts from now on: shortcuts in health and fitness. In keeping with what not to do, I’m going to start testing out plus revisiting past experiences on successful and failed shortcuts – from biohacking to optimum exercise times and everything in between.

Since having moved to America, I am quickly discovering that everything in America is a race. This discovery is actually pretty ok with me, as I do much better when focused on a goal. The problem is, I lead a full life and am not that excited about increasing the time spent each day on things, like losing those pesky 5 (10) pounds that attached themselves to me on a recent Foodie Trip to Peru (more on that to come in another post). Instead my goal is to get smarter about the time I spend, in order to achieve goals faster in the same – or less – time spent.

Enter BulletProof Coffee and Intermittent Fasting. I had heard through Paleo-loving friends about putting butter in coffee, but wrongly assumed that this was just because they couldn’t have cream. As my husband and I eat (pretty much) Paleo (except for my beloved glass of red wine with dinner and his occasional beer) when we’re not traveling, I thought I’d look in to the butter in coffee thing. But BulletProof Coffee is proving to be quite an incredible discovery. This stuff makes you lose weight, while retaining muscle and increasing brain functions! And it’s safe for women who still want their bodies to remember they’re women.

I’m on my third morning, having lost 2.5 pounds so far. I feel fantastic, have no cravings at all and am mentally alert. The only exercise I’m doing is my two to three rounds of the 7-minute workout (more on this in another post) which on it’s own in my past three weeks of testing has made no improvement at all, though I have been able to sustain my weight and fitness using it (which to be fair, isn’t bad for 14 to 21 minutes a day). Coupled with the BulletProof Intermittent Fasting though, I seem to be on to a winner.

True to form for me, I of course want to push the boat out some by keeping my glass (or two) of red wine in, and I’ve also added in lemon and hot water first thing in the morning as this does wonders for your skin and getting the toxins out of your liver 1st thing in the morning. Apart from that I’m following the BulletProof eating guide, which is quite close to the Paleo life we follow at home.

My goal is the remaining 6 pounds by the 4th of November, when we leave for a holiday in Spain. I’m doubtful that I can sustain this pace of weight loss – particularly with the weekend approaching when ‘crapola’ – to use a dear friend Dr Simone Laubscher‘s phrase – happens. My prediction will be that after another day the weight loss will slow to half a pound a day and I’ll be set back a pound or two by the weekend. Stay tuned! I’ll update on my progress pre and post weekend.